wrvond

Who has time to take photos? Well, good ones, anyway. By the time I slow down enough to take them, I'm away from all the beautiful scenery.


Camper: 2014 Coachmen Catalina 253RKS
Truck: 2006 5.4L XLT
Towed miles: 2000 so far this year

Ftruck150

Brace yourself - the weight police are coming!

willieboy

I have a post earlier in the thread showing the old trailer. Here is the New trailer with the "old truck". The F150 did the job well, and I was within all the specs, but 4x4 became important to me, so the F150 was replaced. I finally decided it was time to go to a bigger truck; see the last picture.

The day after the new trailer was delivered, headed out for the Maiden Voyage:


Another shot from the same trip on the way home in the parking lot of Buc-ees, the world's best convenience store!



New Truck:

SkiSmuggs

Sweet fiver and sweet new F350! How about a quick comparison of towing between the two trucks.

willieboy

Thanks for the compliments!

Comparison: It is not really fair to make a comparison. The F150 did the job and did it very well. Truth be told, I was very happy with the performance of the truck, towing comfort, etc.; the F150 gave me zero reasons to complain. If I could have found a 4x4 SCrew F150 with 2400+ lbs of payload, it would be in my driveway. As a matter of fact, the reason I have a F350 instead of a F250 was because I couldn't find a 4x4 SCrew Diesel F250 with 2400+ lbs of payload!

So onto the F350 Powerstroke. It really is a night and day difference. While I was very happy with the F150's towing comfort, power, etc, the F350 really is a lot better, and definitely overkill from a power standpoint. Riding down the road with the trailer, I think it the 1 ton is more comfortable, and the wife and kids said the same thing. The power is always there, ready to go at any time. Merging onto interstates was not usually a problem with the F150, but with the F350 it is never a concern. MPGs towing on very similar routes at a very similar speed: F150: 9.0-10 MPG, the F350 (not broken in fully yet): 10.5 -12MPG. Unloaded MPG is nearly the same identical on both vehicles (18.5 Hwy/15 in town).

The F350 does not come without faults. It does not quite have the unloaded road manners of the F150; you can definitely feel the height and handling differences. The F350 feel the bumps a lot more than the F150, though it is nothing like 1 ton trucks from even 10 years ago. The biggest issue is parking the beast! This is one wide, long and tall truck! Parking garages are not my friend, and that is a problem with some of the places I need to go. I have to be very cognizant of where I am going, making sure if their garages don't have the clearance I need (7' to be comfortable, thought technically I should fit in 6'10") that there is some sort of surface parking. This is a real issue in the Texas Medical Center, as they have 2 or 3 garages that fit my truck, and almost no surface parking. I may swap out the rear axle blocks from the 4" F350 version to the 2" F250 rear axle version just for this very reason.

All that said, I love the F350. I really like my F150 and never thought I would go to a SuperDuty size truck. But with the desire/"need" to go to 4x4 and still be able to tow the Fiver, the F350 was really the best choice. Now that I own the big beast, I love it.

MikeFresno

I did same thing 2 weeks, only went with F250. Loved my F150 but with the larger trailer and the lift it wasnt practical and I didn't feel safe

dcarr

Hooking up this morning to head out

CDNfyrfytr

Nice 250...I have the same trailer but without the fiberglass sides. How does the 250 town it compared to the 150?

MikeFresno

Just got it on fathers day, haven't towed with it yet, but looking foward to it. Next camping trip is July 25th.will let ya know

tll

Here is our new camper, just took delivery of it a few days ago.
2015 Starcraft Travelstar 299BHU Black Pearl